S1: System Engineering Principles

Lecturers: Pan. Panagiotakopoulos, I. Dokas
Academic Credits: 3

Description:
The objective of the course is to assist students understand at an introductory level, through examples and case studies, the basic concepts of the Systems Approach (SA) and Cybernetics in Management as well as the sustainability dimensions (economic, environmental, social) in managing technical projects, organizations and policies. Elements of Organizational Cybernetics  and Management Cybernetics are presented,  based on S. Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM). The student is encouraged to understand reality before entering into the symbolic world of models, to understand the dependency of the model from the scope. The course looks  -- from the manager’s scope-- at concepts such as: 

• Problem definition (recognition of need, objectives, criteria), boundaries, alternatives, performance indicators  and selection. 
• Holism and systemic (top-down)  approach versus analytic (bottom-up)  
• Hierarchies of needs, objectives and systems; subsystems and parallel systems
• Model building and model use in management
• Input, output, structure, function, stability, feedback, black box, control, evolution, disturbance, crisis, open or closed system, soft or hard system, etc.  
• Complexity & Recursiveness
•  Ashby’s law of requisite variety.